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‘A few months into my exercise, I’m finding my shoulder muscles i.e. the deltoids become more obvious. What can I do so I don’t end up with bulky-looking shoulders?’
Listen to our accredited Exercise Physiologist, Eliza’s, response –
Some more info. –
Where are the deltoid, bicep, and tricep muscles? What do they do?
The deltoid muscles help with anything to do with lifting the arms and pushing.
It switches on whenever you lift your arms e.g. hanging up your washings. It also switches on in exercises like plank when you’re pushing against the ground. The deltoid’s function in this case is to stabilise your shoulders so you don’t fall flat on your face.
Exercises that strengthen the deltoids include: front and lateral raise, upright row.
The bicep muscles bend your arm, and thus movements like lifting things towards you.
For example, when you receive a heavy package from your latest Amazon shopping from the delivery person, or even as simple as drinking your coffee.
Exercises that strengthen the biceps include: bicep curls.
The tricep muscles do the opposite as the bicep muscles, they straighten your arm.
Any movement requiring the straightening of your arms activate the triceps e.g. pushing yourself up and out of a chair, putting a book away overhead.
Exercises that strengthen the triceps include: tricep push-up, bent-over row, tricep extension.
It’s important to note that not one muscle group works in isolation.
This means we need to make sure the exercises we do are FUNCTIONAL, that reflects how we use our shoulders in our daily activities.
Make sure you train the group of muscles, and movement, as opposed to single muscles so you don’t create imbalance.
All three muscles, along with those in the back and surrounding the shoulder joint, are crucial to upper-body strength, stability, and mobility.
Building the strength and endurance of all these muscle groups contributes to reducing injury risk and improving upper-body function.
